Welcome to One with the Road, a travelogue of Jeff and Sandra as we make a journey across the United States in the only true American Sports car: The Chevrolet Corvette. It has been a life long dream of Jeff’s to do a cross-country road trip. This year, 2008, the year of Jeff’s 40th birthday, is that year – finally!!. Turns out there is never a really good time to do such a trip, so you just have to make it a priority, take the time off, and….well….just start driving!
The trip starts from our home in Rochester, NY and heads west primarily along US-20 (The Oregon Trail) all the way to Cannon Beach, Oregon. Cannon Beach is a bit northwest of Portland right on the Pacific Ocean. From there, we will turn south and follow along the Pacific Coast Highway (US-101 and then US-1) all the way to Los Angeles, CA where we finally make a hard left turn and start heading back east along Historic Route 66. We’ll follow The Mother Road where it still exists all the way to St. Louis, MO. At this point, the road heads more north into Illinois, but we’ll be continuing from St. Louis farther east with Bowling Green, KY in our sights.
Why Bowling Green, you ask!? – We’ll give you hint. It has something in common with St. Louis, actually. If you are a Corvette fan, of course you know this, but both cities are places where Corvettes have been or actually are built. Original production back in 1953 started in St. Louis, but now Corvettes are exclusively built in Bowling Green. We’ll be visting the Corvette Assembly Plant there and also the National Corvette Museum. We visited both back in 2003 for the Corvette 50th Anniversary bash, but haven’t been since. Both places are well worth the trip if you have any interest in cars, or Corvettes in particular, especially if you are ever anywhere near the area.
Anyway, once done with Mecca for Corvette Owners, our final destination is Charleston, WV before making the turn north and heading back home to Rochester. We’re currently esimating the trip to involve 26 days of actual driving for a grand total of approximately 7,500 miles made good* along the road. We suspect the actual miles put on the car will likely be a bit closer to 8,000 miles by the time all the local driving is covered at each stop over point. How long do you think all those miles will take? Good Question!? – The computer is estimating 151 hours and 12 minutes (approximately 6 continuous days of actual driving) based on our current average speed assumptions on the various roads.
Right now, we’re still in the final planning stages attempting to lock down each and every day’s route, worthy waypoints, destination hotels, and exact travel days. We’ve set a limit on the total trip duration to 30 days maximum with a goal of keeping it to 28 days or less including layover days. Prior to the trip starting, we’re planning on writing some preparation arcticles talking about equipment and trip logistics as things are firmed up. Stay Tuned, July is coming fast!
* 7,500 miles made good? – Well, maybe that is actually 0 miles made good since our trip is a closed loop!?
